What is Mentoring?

Mentoring is a way of supporting and encouraging people to manage their own career and learning in order to maximise their potential and build their skills.

We are all responsible for our own development but the active support of an experienced professional, in a role of a mentor, can be extremely helpful at particular times of your career.  A mentor is someone that offers their time voluntarily to help and support the mentee towards achieving agreed objectives.

This is the traditional model of mentoring where a mentee is matched to a mentor based on criteria such as, experience, skill sets, goals and personality.  There are many benefits to this model of mentoring and these include having a personal connection between a mentor and mentee, individual support and tailored learning.

How does the scheme work?

Mentoring is a self administered process.  The guidance and application form can be found here:

The list of APSL mentors can be found below.  Once you’ve identified a potential mentor, you can contact them to arrange a brief introductory meeting.  It is important to establish a clear idea of both the mentor’s and mentee’s approach to ensure you both feel comfortable working with each other.  Mentor role profiles will include their name, professional, biography and contact details.  Mentees can contact a mentor based on their interests and skill sets.

The scheme will offer a number of benefits:

  • Networking – it will provide participants with opportunities to broaden and expand their networks and relationships within APSL, and further.
  • Sharing knowledge and skills – it will offer participants the chance to develop skills and experiences along with gaining perspectives in particular professions.
  • Developing careers – it will help participants gain an insight into potential career opportunities.

If you have any specific questions about the scheme please contact us on mentoring@apsl.org.uk.